Lebanon ‘detains’ former al-Assad-era general, weighs handing him to Syria

Judicial and security sources say a routine embassy visit landed a wanted former Syrian general in a Beirut jail cell.

Lebanese authorities have arrested a former Syrian army general who once served under ousted President Bashar al-Assad, according to judicial and security officials.

Major-General Adel Issa was taken into custody in Beirut on Friday, and officials are weighing whether to send him back to Syria to face accusations tied to his military service, the sources told news agencies on Saturday.

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If he is handed over to Syrian authorities, it would mark the first such transfer since al-Assad’s government collapsed in December 2024, when opposition fighters seized Damascus and sent many former officials fleeing into Lebanon, where some remain to this day.

Officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to the AFP and Associated Press news agencies, said Issa went to the Syrian embassy in Beirut on Friday for some paperwork.

Embassy staff realised he was wanted back home and alerted Lebanon’s prosecutor’s office.

This prompted investigators from the Central Criminal Investigation Department to detain him and take him to a facility at the Beirut Palace of Justice, the officials added.

Under questioning, Issa admitted to entering Lebanon illegally after al-Assad’s fall, though he reportedly denied all wrongdoing.

Since Friday falls on the weekend in Syria, Lebanese authorities are expected to wait until Monday for formal charges from Damascus before deciding how to proceed, officials said.

Lebanon’s public prosecutor has asked his Syrian counterpart to send the suspect’s extradition file before Beirut decides whether to hand him over, a judicial official told AFP.

Issa, 67, once commanded Syria’s 17th Division before being moved in 2015 to lead ground forces in Deir Az Zour province near the Iraqi border, a post he held until his retirement in late 2016, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group.

His case unfolds against the backdrop of Syria’s broader reckoning with the al-Assad era, during which dozens of former security officials accused of abuses have already been arrested and tried.

Among them is al-Assad’s cousin, Atef Najib, whose trial began in April over his alleged role in triggering the 2011 uprising and whose verdict is expected soon.

Al-Assad and his brother Maher fled to Russia after the collapse of his regime, bringing an end to a civil war that killed roughly half a million people and wounded more than a million more.